Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday expressed disappointment after a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference ended without a joint declaration, saying Russia should take the blame for the breakdown.

Kishida said maintaining and strengthening the NPT is "the only realistic approach" to nuclear disarmament. The Japanese leader, who represents a constituency in atomic-bombed Hiroshima, has been pushing for a world without nuclear weapons.

Moscow, which is continuing its war in Ukraine, opposed a final draft of the consensus document at the end of the roughly monthlong NPT review conference in New York, with references to the Russian-seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine a point of contention.